California Pizza Kitchen, known within the food industry as CPK, is a casual dining restaurant chain that specializes in California-style pizza. The restaurant was started in 1985 by attorneys Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax in Beverly Hills, California. The chain is widely known for its innovative and non traditional pizzas, such as the "Original BBQ Chicken Pizza", BLT, Thai Chicken, and Jamaican Jerk Chicken pizzas. They also serve various kinds of pasta, salads, soups, sandwiches and desserts. They have an extensive children's menu for children ages 10 and under which includes a variety of different pizzas, pastas, salad, and chicken.

The chain has over 230 locations in 32 US states and eleven other countries, including 26 California Pizza Kitchen ASAP kiosks designed to serve passengers at airports and shopping malls. The company licensed its name to Kraft Foods to distribute a line of premium frozen pizzas, in 2000.; Nestlé purchased Kraft's pizza lines in 2010.

For the Dough: Dissolve
yeast in water and set aside for 5 to 10 min.. Be sure that water is not too
hot: Temps over 120 will kill the yeast.

IF USING
UPRIGHT ELECTRIC MIXER: Use mixing paddle attachment because batch size is too
small for the dough hook. Combine all other ingredients. Add dissolved yeast.
Use the lowest 2 speeds to mix dough. Mix 2-3 min. until dough is smooth and
elastic. Over mixing will produce tough, rubbery dough, and friction will cause
dough to rise too fast.

IF USING
USING FOOD PROCESSOR: Use dough blade.proceed as in preceeding instructions.

IF MIXING
BY HAND: Place dry ingredients in a 4-6 qt mixing bowl , make a well in the
middle and add liquids. Use a wooden spoon to combine. Lightly oil hands and
knead for 5 minutes. When done the dough should be slightly tacky. Lightly oil
the ball and the interior of a 1 qt. glass bowl. Place dough ball in bowl and
seal bowl air-tight with clear food wrap. Set aside at room temperature to rise
until double in bulk: 1-1/2 - 2 hrs. The dough could be used now but it would
be nothing special To obtain that wonderful, chewy, flavorful dough that it
will later become, punch down dough, reform a nice round ball and return it to
same bowl; cover again with clear plastic wrap. Place bowl in refrigerator
overnight, covered airtight. About 2 hours before you are ready to assemble
pizza, remove dough from fridge, use a sharp knife to divde dough into 2 equal
portions. Roll smaller dough into round balls on a smoothe surface; seal any
holes by pinching . Place the dough balls in a glass casserole dish, space far
enough to allow each to rise until doubled in size (about 2 hrs.). They should
be smooth and puffy. To stretch and form dough for pizza, sprinkle flour on
smooth surface. Use a spatula to carefully remove dough ball from casserol dish
. Be very careful to preserve its round shape. Flour the dough liberally. Use
your hand or rolling pin to press dough down forming a flat circle about
1/2" thick. Pinch dough between your fingers around edge forming a
1/4" rim. Continue this outward stretching until you have reaached a
9" diameter pizza dough. Yields ennough dough for 2- 9" pizzas. After
topping pizza transfer to pizza stone in preheated oven. The stone should be
preheated at 500 degrees for 1 hour. Bake 8 to 10 min.

.

California
Club Pizza Topping: Cook
chicken on grill 2 minutes on first side. Turn and cook 1 minute on second
side. Dice into 1/2 inch pieces. Mix
iceberg lettuce and romaine lettuce together in large bowl with 4 tablespoons
mayonnaise. Mix until lettuce is well coated with mayonnaise. When pizza
is baked remove from oven, cover top of each pizza with 1/2 the lettuce
mixture. Slice each pizza into 8 pieces. Top each slice with 1 slice tomato and
one slice avocado.